El Paso Valley Cotton Association

Association of cotton farmers concerned with the promotion of cotton in the Texas counties of El Paso, Hudspeth, and Culberson. The association sponsored the area's Maid of Cotton contest and also handled the contracting of farm labor through the Bracero program from 1955-1965. This was a program designed by Mexican president, Avila Camache and U.S. president, Franklin Roosevelt to allow Mexican laborers (braceros) to serve as agricultural workers in the southwestern United States during World War II. In 1943, the program was expanded to include non-agricultural labor as well. In, all, over 300,000 Mexicans participated in the program.